Why would anyone want to be a politician in Ireland? The late John Kelly, a Dublin TD and UCD academic, once justified his own obsession with politics by suggesting it originated out of a desire to serve his country.

Firstly, I apologise to any Christian readers not of the Catholic faith. I can only write from experience and hope that the issues outlined over the past weeks find resonance and resolution in their own spiritual journeys.

A beautiful tiny place exists off the west coast of Ireland. Hidden out in Galway Bay secluded between its two sister islands is a place called Inis Meain, meaning the middle island.

Like a lot of people who participate in voluntary organisations or support groups, Maria Moylett has found herself involved in helping birth mothers who had their children adopted because of her own experience.

Just as the wild Atlantic gales lash our western shores in and out of season, a foreboding storm of a different nature appears to be sweeping across the country.

There’s a bit of a brouhaha at the moment, a contrived brouhaha I would suggest, about the proliferation of journalists or former journalists who have ended up as advisers to our top politicians and government ministers.

This week sees the anniversary of the formal surrender by Germany that ended World War II in Europe. Next month we go to the polls in the European elections.

Recently, the once-well-known BBC literary pundit, Joan Bakewell, was asked: ‘How old is old?’ Now in her 90s, she dismissed the question as ‘old hat’.

In a few short weeks we will all have the right to go to the ballot boxes and vote for who we want to represent us at local authority and European level.

I must confess to a love affair with the Yorkshire Dales. I am not sure where it originated but I know it has been reinforced by watching the television programme, All Creatures Great and Small.